Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient retroviral infection

Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by lazyjones on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @05:41PM (#18070748)

Is it possible to just wipe all known virus remains from our DNA and if yes, what would happen? Would the resulting organism even be able to live?

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Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by cc-d on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @06:54PM (#18071251)

Considering viral DNA makes up approximately 8% of the human genome, eliminating it probably wouldn't end too well.

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Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by charlieflowers on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @07:28PM (#18071442)

The technical debt of the genome. But code that the new folks are afraid to touch.

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Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by bazooka2th on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @07:26PM (#18071430)

Probably. Improbably, it could produce the ubermensch. Someone needs to get on it.

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Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by jhayward on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @10:46PM (#18072322)

This is akin to asking to delete huge portions of human evolution from the genome. It probably isn't going to work out like you'd want.

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Re:Evidence that addictive behaviors have links with ancient... by trophycase on Tuesday September 25, 2018 @10:51PM (#18072348)

Perhaps the gene that makes people more prone to addiction also makes them take more risk or work harder? You can't just delete shit from an extremely complex system and expect it will just work.

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